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Delete, restore, or purge a content item

This content applies to the legacy editor and the new editor.

When you delete an item in Confluence, it moves to the space's trash much like an email moves to your email trash or a file moves to the trash on your computer. The item isn't permanently deleted and can be retrieved, until you purge the item from the trash. There's a few things you might want to check before you delete an item, like checking incoming links and child items, and you can find all of these under the Page Information

Delete a content item

  1. Go to the item to be deleted.

  2. Click  > Delete

The Delete option will only appear if you have permission to delete this item. See Space permissions.

If someone has applied page restrictions to the page, these restrictions may also prevent you from deleting the item.

Deleting a draft, unpublished changes, or a page version?

Unlike deleting a published page, deleting any of these is permanent and they can't be restored.

  • To delete a draft or unpublished changes while editing a page, choose  > Delete unpublished page or Revert to last published version.

  • To delete a page version while viewing a page, choose  > Page History, find the version you want, and choose Delete.

Delete a content item with children

If you delete an item that has any child items, the child items move up to the nearest parent item. If you want to keep the child items under another parent, move them before deleting their former parent.

To remove a parent item and a large number of child items:

  1. Create a temporary new space

  2. Move the parent item to the new space (the child items will move too)

  3. Delete the space

View Page Information

The Page Information is here to help you delete pages responsibly, letting you know who the last editors were, what incoming links you'll need to remove or redirect, and who has permissions for this page.

To see the information about the page:

  1. View the page.

  2. Click  > Page Information

You'll see the following information:

  • Page details: Title, author, date of creation, date of last modification and the tiny link (permalink) of the page.

  • Page hierarchy: Parent-child relationships of the page.

  • Incoming links: Lists other pages in your Confluence site that have links to this page, or that reference this page in an Include Page or Excerpt Include macro. Deleting this page will break these links, so you might want to unlink or redirect these links.

  • Labels: Any labels (tags) that have been applied to this page.

  • Page Permissions: Displays page-level security restrictions that apply to the page (if present).

  • Recent Changes: Links to the five most recent versions of the page along with the name of the editor and the date of modification. 

  • Outgoing links: A summary of the links contained on this page, pointing to other pages on the Confluence site or to external websites.

If a section has no information to report, it won't appear under Page Information.


For space admins

Restore a deleted item

When you restore an item in Confluence, it will be restored to the root of the space, not to its old location. This means that it sits at the same level in the content tree as your home page, so it won't be visible to anyone from the space sidebar. You can find this item by going to Space settings and selecting Reorder from the Manage pages card. 

To restore a deleted item:

  1. Select Space settings from the sidebar.

  2. Select Trash from the Manage pages card.

  3. Select Restore for the page you wish to restore.

If a new item has already been created in that space with the same name as the item you're restoring, you'll be given an option to rename the item before it's restored.

Purge deleted items

To permanently get rid of an item, you need to purge it from the trash. That'll mean the item, and all its versions and attachments, are gone for good.

Attachments of deleted items remain in the database until the trash is purged, after which they're permanently deleted. This means that, before you purge any items, you should check that the attachments on those items aren't being used elsewhere. If you're not sure, move those attachments onto another item.

To purge deleted items:

  1. Select Space settings from the sidebar.

  2. Select Trash from the Manage pages card.

  3. Select Purge for a specific item or Purge All to permanently clear all deleted items and news items.

Additional Help